Letter to a Friend Concerning the So-Called "Lordship Salvation"

John Piper

John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including A Peculiar Glory.

John Piper

John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including A Peculiar Glory.

Introduction

Explanatory Note: In the February, 1989 issue of The
Standard, the journal for news and comment of the Baptist General
Conference, I published a very affirming review of John MacArthur’s
book, The Gospel According to Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1988). One respected and effective minister of our fellowship responded
to me with serious concern about what I was saying. The gist of his
concern is seen in a few excerpts from his letter. I am going to change
a few details so as not to draw attention to any one individual, because
my friend speaks for many.

He said, “Near the age of fifteen I accepted Christ as my Savior.
As I look back on my life, I can see He had powerful influence during
my late teen years and early twenties. In my late twenties I began to
be aware of the concept of Christ as Lord. As I investigated that concept
and struggled with it, I realized that for Christ to be Lord, I had
to submit everything to Him. In my early thirties I did just that. The
concept of ‘lordship salvation’ that you support would mean that had
I died at age twenty-two, that is, before Christ was Lord, I would not
have gone to Heaven.”

Dear Friend!

Thank you for taking time and interest to respond to my review of
John MacArthur’s book, The Gospel According to Jesus. I have
heard of your love for Christ and your faithfulness in evangelism and
discipling. This is plain also from your response. And I thank God for
it. I hope these things can be discussed in a way that will minimize
widespread misunderstanding. If you see any misrepresentations of your
thinking please let me know.

Interpreting Two-Stage Experiences

Do you know what I think the biggest problem is between the way I
see things and the way you see things? It is not so much that I deny
your experience, but rather that I disagree with the way you describe
it or interpret it. I can accept that you received Christ as your Savior
near the age of fifteen, and that you were at that moment savingly converted.
I praise God that he opened your eyes like Lydia (Acts 16:14) and that
he drew you to his Son (John 6:44) and took out the heart of stone and
put in a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26) and granted you to repent (2
Tim. 2:25) and believe (Phil. 1:29) and be saved totally by grace apart
from any works (Eph. 2:8).

Not only that, I can accept that some years later, when you were
in your early thirties, you had another remarkable experience with Christ
in which you made a decisive commitment to him as Lord and submitted
everything in your life to him. This experience, or something
like it, is told again and again in my church as people give their testimonies.

I highlight the word experience, because my guess is that
your description of it has been significantly influenced by
a popular, contemporary paradigm which, in my judgment, is not fully
biblical. I think I can show this from Scripture. But the hundreds of
testimonies I have listened to over the years also bear this out.

One can tell pretty quickly the people who have been taught to describe
their experience in this two-stage, Savior-Lord sequence. As I have
queried some of these people it has become clear to me that the secondary
nature of the description sometimes is so tied in with the
genuineness of the experience that to question the description
is like calling into question the experience, which I hesitate to do.
God alone is the final judge of a person’s true experience of salvation.
But the Bible is the judge of how we should describe it.

When I have suggested to others another way of describing what has
happened to them, they have often seen truth in what I say and dropped
the two step, Savior-Lord paradigm as sub- and misleading.

A Converted Catholic Monk

I recall one fellow in particular from South Africa, a converted
Catholic monk. He was converted remarkably by the sovereign work of
God one night during his evening prayers in the monastery. He knew he
was a new person the next morning when, instead of getting angry at
the bothersome 3:00 AM prayers of his aged neighbor, he felt pity and
compassion for him.

His life, typically had its ups and downs as he discovered more and
more fully the meaning of belonging to Jesus. Having left the monastery
he joined a ministry in South Africa. Through this ministry he learned
to interpret his experience and give his testimony in a two-stage, Savior-Lord
sequence. He spoke of conversion to Christ as Savior and of a later
submission to him as Lord.

But as he sat at our dinner table one Sunday after service, telling
his story, I could tell that things simply did not jibe. The paradigm
did not work. His experience, as it came out in his longer interaction
with us, simply did not fit. So I said to him, what I think I would
say to you if I were talking to you now, “You know, Bill (not his real
name), I think Jesus was your Lord before that later act of submission.
I think he was your Lord the night you were converted and since then
your experience has been one of more and more yieldedness to his sovereign
rights as Lord over your life. And I don’t think that you have bowed
to his lordship consistently since that time you ‘made him Lord’. You
are not fully yielded now or you would be sinless. But he is still your
Lord now. And you were not fully yielded then, but he was your Lord
then.”

Bill was dumbfounded that I would call his testimony into question.
No one had ever spoken to him like this. He had only heard one paradigm
for describing his experience. He sat in silence for a few minutes,
and then said, “You know, I think you’re right.” And he went on to say
that it had never felt quite right and that what I said seemed to make
more sense out of the Scriptures as well as his experience.

My Father, the Evangelist

My own father is a full-time evangelist and has led thousands of
souls to Christ over the last forty years of faithful gospel ministry.
I just called him in Easley, S.C., to have him rehearse for me his experience
and give me a reading as an evangelist on the two step, Savior-Lord
paradigm.

He said that he used to talk that way but has given it up in recent
years (he just turned seventy) because of how much damage he saw it
doing to the churches as it encouraged people to think they were saved
who were not. He quoted Romans 10:9 on the phone and said, “If a person
does not have Jesus as Lord he does not have him at all.”

He himself received Christ at the age of six at his mother’s knee.
Then as a teenager in 1934 during special services at his dad’s church
in Reading, Pennsylvania he was brought under deep conviction of the
weakness of his life and the cowardice of his witness. He went forward
and “surrendered totally to the Lord.” That was the first time, he said,
that he knew the fullness of the Spirit in his life, and he became powerfully
courageous, even standing up the next day in his public high school
and preaching for twenty minutes.

But he does not say Jesus was not his Lord before that experience
of deeper surrender. Rather he talks of coming more fully to submit
to his lordship which had reigned savingly over his life for the past
ten years but had allowed him to have many struggles and come to a crisis
of commitment.

Then at about the age of thirty there was another crisis. He was
drowning in debt and experiencing depression and insomnia. He began
to read a book by James McConkey about submission to God. The basis
of the book was Psalm 37:4-5, and the author spoke of committing all
to God and submitting to God’s sovereign plan for your life and resting
in him. My father said that he realized at that point, in spite of the
great power in his life for saving souls, he was not totally submitted
to God. He bowed and gave up all to the Lord again. He said he found
a peace beyond anything he had ever known.

His point was, and my point is, that from the time of our first saving
acceptance of Christ, he is our King and Lord and Savior and Priest
and Prophet and Counselor. All that he is, he is for those who are his.
And then begins a life of faltering and growing yieldedness to Christ
in all that he is. his can come in the form of decisive crises, or in
the form of gradually growing commitment, or in the form of daily surrenderings.
The lordship of Christ, in reality, is something that is not discovered
and yielded to once, but thousands of times. It is yieldedness to his
lordship that is at stake every time we are tempted to sin—every day.

He Was My Lord Then I “Made Him Savior”

I have another friend who tells his testimony like this: I received
Jesus as my Lord when I was a child but it was many years before
I discovered how much he wanted to save me from my sins of
lust and greed and pride. Then I had a powerful encounter with Jesus
and discovered this great saving intention and “made him my
Savior” in
a new and powerful way.

That has as much to say for it as the reverse paradigm. We would
probably want to admonish him that he must have received Jesus
as Savior at the beginning in some sense. He would have to
admit that, I think, just as I think you would have to admit that you
received Jesus as Lord in some sense when you were first saved.

There are even indications in your response to me that Jesus was
the Lord of your life before the crisis experience in your early thirties.
One indication is your statement that Christ “had a powerful influence
during my late teen years and early twenties.” Could we not say that
this word “powerful” means that Jesus had a “lordly” influence
in your life in those years? Was he passive or was he exerting the power
of his reign as Lord? If you were being powerfully influenced by the
risen Jesus, it was the Lord who was influencing you, for only
as Lord does Christ reign and work among his people.

You may say, “But I did not relate to him as Lord in those years.”
I wonder if that is exactly true? I wonder about this because something
may be real even when we don’t understand it fully or even use the right
language to describe it. For example, is a person not “born again” just
because he has never heard the term “born again” and does not relate
to Jesus in those terms but only in terms of faith and forgiveness and
atonement? No. A person is just as born again if he believes in Jesus,
even if he has never heard of the word “regeneration” or the term “born
again”. Many have been born again and saved through gospel tracts which
say nothing about the term “rebirth.”

So I reckon it is possible that many people “have Jesus as their
Lord” who don’t think much about that term (as evidently you didn’t
for ten years after your conversion). If you were not dealing with Christ
as one who authoritatively calls for newness of life, you would probably
have been changed very little. But your testimony is that Christ “had
a powerful influence” on your life in those early days. I believe you
were dealing with him as your Lord even though that may not have been
a title you fully understood. I’m sure I didn’t in my earliest days
as a believer.

In fact none of us yet understands the full implications of the lordship
of Christ on our lives. I am struggling every day to know what the Lord
is requiring of me in specific choices among good options. I am learning
every day the extent of his lordly control of the world and his mysterious
ways of fulfilling his promises as Lord of my life and my church. Submitting
to the lordship of Christ is a lifelong activity. It must be renewed
every day in many acts of trust and obedience. Submission to Christ’s
lordship is not merely a once-for-all experience.

Rejecting Christ As Lord and Still Saved?

I say “not merely” because in a sense it is a once for all
experience. I believe this is conversion. And if I understand the main
difference between us it is right here. You seem to say that a person
can be converted and saved even if they reject the claim of
Jesus to be their Lord. I may be wrong here. But that seems to be the
implication of what you are saying. For if you are only saying that
a person can be saved and not know fully the implications of Christ’s
lordship, then we have no argument on this point.

But your response goes further than that, I think, and says that
people “do not have Christ as Lord” and yet are saved. I take
the phrase, “do not have Christ as Lord,” to mean “reject his lordship.”
Otherwise you would only be saying that all saved people own Jesus as
Lord of their lives but live out that submission in greater or lesser
degrees of consistency. But that is what I am saying. There would be
no dispute.

So I take it that you are saying something much more extreme, namely,
that people can actually be presented with the claims of Christ as Lord
and say, “No, I don’t want to bow to him as Lord, and I do not accept
his claim on my life as authoritative Guide and Teacher,” but still
be saved (if they believe that he died for them!). If that is what you
are saying, then there is a great difference between us indeed. And
not only between you and me, but between you and centuries of Christian
orthodoxy.

No Assurance While Intent On Sin

The Bible makes it plain, I believe, that people who persistently
refuse the command of Jesus’ lordship have no warrant for believing
that they are saved. Such people should not be comforted that they are
saved simply because there was a time when they “believed” gospel facts
or walked an aisle or signed a card or prayed a prayer. In fact, Jesus
seems far more eager to explode the assurance of false “professions
of faith” than he is to give assurance to people who are intent on living
in sin. Where does he ever bolster the “eternal security” of a person
unwilling to forsake sin?

I am not saying that only perfect people are saved. There are no
perfect people on this earth. We sin every day and every good work we
do is tainted with sinful remnants of corruption. I am saying that a
person who goes on willfully rejecting the commands of Jesus for his
life has no warrant for salvation. The evidence for this is found in
the passages of Scripture listed at the end of this letter.

To clear up just what I think the Bible teaches about salvation by
faith I’d like to respond to some other specific points in your letter
that seem to reflect either a misunderstanding of what I am saying,
or a rejection (without sufficient warrant) of what I am saying.

If I Died Before Making Jesus Lord

1. You say, “The concept of ‘lordship salvation’ would mean that
had I died at age twenty-two, that is, before Christ was Lord, I would
not have gone to Heaven.”

I think I have said enough above to assure you that my interpretation
of your experience is a very hopeful one. I do think you would have
gone to heaven. But, O, how I wish you could feel how St. Paul and Jesus
and all the great, godly spokesmen of Christian orthodoxy for 1900 years
would cringe at hearing the words, “Before Christ was Lord”!

Where in the New Testament can you find anything close to such a
description of a true believer? This way of talking about an immature
believer has no warrant in the New Testament. And it is so misleading!

It is misleading because Christ is Lord whether we acknowledge
that or not (Acts 2:36; Philippians 2:11). And it is misleading because
he is the Lord of every true believer whether we grasp this
fully or obey him fully or not.

Just consider these few observations. Dozens of times in writing
to all the believers of a church Paul refers to Jesus as “our Lord.”
Some of these places have to take in all the believers, not
just those who are more mature in their devotion to Christ. For example,
Romans 8:39 is a text you would probably want to use to encourage a
faltering believer that he was secure in the arms of God. Yet the verse
says that nothing will separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”

If the verse is to comfort the reader, the reader has to see himself
in the “our.” Paul has no intention here of saying that there are some
Christians who do not have Jesus as Lord and thus do not have security.
All true Christians can say “our Lord” and be included here. (The same
thing could be said of Romans 6:23.)

Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is
Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.” It is a frightening thing, in view of this verse,
to tell people that they do not have to confess Jesus as Lord in order
to be saved. That is just the opposite of what scripture says. (Romans
10:13 is just as strong.)

In Romans 14:7-8 Paul says, “None of us lives to himself
and none of us dies to himself. If we live we live to the Lord,
and if we die we die to the Lord; so then whether we live or whether
we die, we are the Lord’s.” Notice the phrase, “none of us.”
There is no group of Christians who do not live to the Lord. We may
do it imperfectly and haltingly. But to belong to the Lord is to live
to the Lord.

Paul simply identifies Christians in 1 Corinthians 1:2 as “all those
who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
both their Lord and ours.” He can do this because becoming a Christian means confessing
Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9) and calling on the name of the Lord (Romans
10:13).

Paul described the content of his gospel preaching like this: “For
what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord”
(2 Corinthians 4:5). And in 1 Thessalonians 1:8 he says that the spreading
of this gospel by the churches is the sounding forth of “the Word
of
the Lord.” This is not a second stage “discipleship” message.
This is what he preached as the gospel.

You Did Not Receive A Half-Christ

In Colossians 2:6 Paul says, “As therefore you received Christ Jesus the
Lord, so live in him.” This is the way we should speak to new believers:
you received Jesus in all his offices when you received him for salvation.
You did not receive a half-Christ. He is Prophet, Priest and King—and
he is this for you. This is the One you received. Now live in him in
a way that befits his offices. If you reject him in any of his offices
you reject the Christ and are left with one of your own making who cannot
save.

There are many other uses of the term “Lord” in the New Testament
that show that Paul and the others never conceived of the possibility
of saying that a person could be saved and “not have Jesus as Lord.”
It is not a way of talking and it is dangerously misleading.

2. You say with regard to equipping people for evangelism, “We
must have a concept that is transferable. If we have to develop the
concept of ‘lordship salvation,’ the task becomes impossible. It will
be difficult enough to equip our people to communicate salvation by
faith.”

There is one serious misunderstanding of “lordship salvation” in
this quote and one questionable attitude to Scripture.

Lordship Salvation Is Salvation By Faith

2.1 The misunderstanding is the implication that lordship salvation
is anything other than “salvation by faith.” Paul said to the Philippian
jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
He said, “Believe.” And he said, “Believe on the Lord.” Now
that is lordship salvation and salvation by faith—both. The
question is not whether salvation is by faith. It is (Ephesians 2:8).
The question is first, What is faith? and second, Whom do we have faith
in?

Paul’s answer is that we have faith in the Lord. This does
not turn salvation into salvation by works. It simply means we have
to know whom it is we are trusting.

The answer to the question, What is faith? is the most basic one
in this whole controversy. It is not a simple mental assent to facts—not
lordship facts and not Savior facts. It is a heartfelt coming to Christ
and resting in him for what he is and what he offers. It is an act of
the heart that no longer hates the light but comes to the light because
a new set of spiritual taste buds have been created and Christ now tastes
satisfying to the soul. This notion of faith is taken mainly from the
Gospel of John where Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life; he who comes
to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst”
(John 6:35). (See the texts at the end of this letter under the title
“The Nature of Faith in the Gospel of John.” [Also see the discussion
of saving faith in Chapter Nine of The Pleasures of God.])

This view of faith implies that faith itself will inevitably wean
a person away from sin because faith is a resting in what Jesus has
to offer, namely, the pathway of life. Obedience is not something artificially
added to saving faith later after a second discovery in the Christian
walk. It is what faith does because faith is the soul’s cleaving to
Jesus for the forgiveness and guidance and hope it needs to be happy.
If you don’t do what the doctor says, you don’t trust him.

So lordship salvation is not—emphatically not —anything
other than salvation by faith (true faith) in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Does Experience or Scripture Define the Gospel?

2.2 Your quote also contains a questionable attitude to Scripture. I
say questionable because I don’t think you really want to say what I
hear you saying, namely, that our definition of evangelism and of the
gospel must fit in with what we decide is effective and workable (transferable)
whether or not it is out of sync with Scripture.

You say, “If we have to develop the concept of lordship salvation,
the task becomes impossible.” Do you know what I hear in that sentence?
I hear the words of the disciples after Jesus has turned the rich young
ruler away unsaved because he would not submit to the demand of Jesus
to stop loving his money. They say, “Who then can be saved?” And Jesus
says, “With men it is impossible.”

It does not seem to me that your rejection of “lordship salvation”
(because it would be “impossible” to teach) is in line with the attitude
of Jesus. It is your judgment call that this is “impossible,” not the
Bible’s. The Bible does not say that this kind of evangelism is impossible
and Jesus, and the apostles demonstrate with their lives that it is
not.

Jesus said that the way is hard that leads to life and few there
be that find it (Matt. 7:14). Could it be that we are so bent on having
immediate, measurable results that we have defined the gospel and evangelism
in a way that enables people to understand and respond even without
spiritual comprehension and heart change? I fear this is largely why
we are so weak as a church. The very foundations have been laid wrongly.

Staggeringly Unbiblical

3. You say, “One of my primary objectives [in discipling four
men] is to bring them to a point where Christ becomes Lord. That is
a primary task of discipleship.”

I find these words staggeringly unbiblical! Nowhere! Nowhere in the
New Testament, can you find such an idea, that mature Christians should
suggest to newer believers that Christ is not their Lord. Do you honestly
think the apostle Paul would allow a new convert to say to him: “Jesus
is not my Lord, but I am saved”?

Now let me see if I can cool down here and be conciliatory. Again
I believe that you are in essence teaching something true, namely that
very often a person is converted without realizing the full implications
of the lordship of Christ for their lives.

It is like deciding to join the army and knowing that there will
be a commander but not realizing all that he may tell you to do and
all the rebellion that still remains in your heart. But that is very
different from saying that you can join the army while rejecting the
very right of the commander to tell you what to do.

So I agree that discipling is “teaching them to observe all that
I commanded you” (Matt. 28:19). But I do not agree that Jesus is not
the Lord (commander) of true Christians. No one is a Christian who does
not, in principle (i.e. even if he does not know all the specifics),
bow the knee to Jesus as Lord and say one way or another, I reckon myself
dead to sin and alive to God. “Those who belong to Christ (ALL of them!)
have crucified the flesh” (Galatians 5:24).

How Do You Preach To Disobedient, Professing Christians?

4. You ask, “Could we dare say that they [the unconcerned, apathetic,
stingy, uncommitted professing believers] do not have salvation?”

I believe that our unwillingness to take this possibility seriously
is one of the things that makes preaching across our country anemic.
If you measure by the preaching of Jesus and by the epistles of Paul
the way to preach to disobedient, professing Christians it means saying
things like: “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:21;
cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-10). “Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you
are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my
mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16). “Strive to enter by the narrow door;
for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke
13:24). “If you live according to the flesh you will die” (Romans
8:13).

The absence of this kind of preaching—with such urgency to professing
believers—is one of the weaknesses of the evangelical pulpit. I
am puzzled that you are so hesitant to consider that millions of professing
Christians are not saved, when that is what Jesus very strongly suggests
was true in his day (Matt. 7:13-14) and will be true at the end of the
age—our day (Matt. 24:12-13).

MacArthur is right when he says that Jesus far more often calls people’s
false assurance into question than he tries to give security to any
willfully disobedient beginner. And yet we seem to have just the opposite
concern. We shrink back from calling any one’s assurance into question
if they are a professing believer. And we shrink back from telling new
believers anything about the demands of Jesus that would cause them
to wonder if they are really saved. We are not in sync with Jesus or
the epistles at this point.

Labor On For the Lord of Glory

Well, I hope that what I have said will help us both to be as effective
as possible in the immensely important cause of evangelism and world
missions. My great burden is that we know what the evangel is. I think
it
has been watered down in some presentations to the point where it
is not the robust, powerful, life-changing message that I hear in the
New Testament.

I hope the lines will be open between us for further conversation.
These things are immensely important. There will not be any lasting
and deep revival apart from a radical commitment to the full-orbed truth
of all that the Bible teaches (Acts 20:20,27).

I praise God for how he has used you in his service. Let nothing
I say be heard as diminishing the great way in which God is blessing
your life and work. May great grace continue to crown all your labors
for the Lord of glory!

Your partner in the Great Work,

John Piper

Appendix: Texts That Point to the Necessity of Yielding
to Christ as Lord in Order to Inherit Eternal Life

NOTE: None of these texts means that salvation can be earned by works
of the law. Salvation is by grace through faith; it does not come from
ourselves; it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). What these texts teach
is that the faith which justifies also sanctifies (Acts 15:9). All the
obedience of believers necessary for final salvation is obedience that
comes from faith (1 Thess. 1:3; 2 Thess. 1:11; Gal. 5:6; Hebrews 10:35-36;
11:8). If it does not come from faith it is legalism and gains nothing
but deeper condemnation (Romans 9:32). What is being taught in all these
texts is this: “By my works I will show you my faith . . . faith apart
from works is barren . . . faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:18,
20, 26). Salvation is by grace through faith. But saving faith is no
fruitless mental assent to gospel facts. These texts point to the truth
that the faith that saves is a feeding on Jesus with such satisfaction
that we are gradually weaned away from the enslaving addictions to sin
(John 6:35; Hebrews 11:24-26).

The Necessity of Doing Good

Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall
enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who
is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many
mighty works in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I
never knew you. Depart from Me, you evildoers.’”

John 5:28-29, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when
all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth, those
who have done good, to the resurrection of the life, and those
who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”

Romans 2:6-10, “For He will render to every man according to his
works: to those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and
honor and immortality He will give eternal life; but for those
who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there
will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every
human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but
glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first
and also the Greek.”

Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due
season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.”

1 Timothy 5:8, “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and
especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse
than an unbeliever.”

James 2:17,26, “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead .
. . For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart
from works is dead.”

The Necessity of Obedience

Matthew 7:24-27, “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and
does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the
rock; and the rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and
beat upon that house but it did not fall, because it had been founded
on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does
not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon
the sand; and the rains fell and the floods came, and the winds blew
and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of
it.”

Matthew 12:48-50, “But Jesus replied to the man who told him, ‘Who
is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ And stretching out his hand
toward his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers!
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother,
and sister, and mother.’“

Luke 13:6-9, “And He told this parable: A man had a fig tree planted
in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit on it and found none and
he said to the vinedresser, ‘Lo, these three years I have come seeking
fruit on this fig tree, and I found none. Cut it down; why should it
use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Let it alone, sir, this year
also, until I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit
next year, well and good but if not you can cut it down.’“

Luke 8:11-15, “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes
and takes away the Word from their hearts, that they may not believe
and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear
the Word receive it with joy; but these have no root, they believe for
a while and in time of temptation fall away. And as for what fell among
the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they
are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their
fruit is not mature. And as for that in the good soil, they are
those who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart,
and bring forth fruit with patience.”

John 14:15, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

John 15:2, “Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes
away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it
may bear more fruit.”

John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who
does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
rests upon him.”

Romans 6:12,14, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies,
to make you obey their passions . . . For sin will have no dominion
over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-10, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the immoral
nor idolaters nor adulterers nor sexual perverts nor thieves nor the
greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor robbers will inherit the Kingdom
of God.”

Hebrews 5:8-9, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through
what He suffered; and being made perfect He became the source of
eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”

Hebrews 10:36, “For you have need of endurance, so that you may do
the will of God and receive what is promised.”

1 John 2:4, “He who says ‘I know Him,’ but disobeys his commandments
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (See 1 John 3:1-10.)

1 John 2:17, “And the world passes away, and the lust of it; but he
who does the will of God abides forever.”

The Necessity of Holiness

2 Thessalonians 2:13, “But we are bound to give thanks to God always
for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the
beginning to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and
belief in the Truth.”

Hebrews 12:14, “Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness
without which no one will see the Lord.”

The Necessity to Forgive Others

Matthew 6:12-15, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will
forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Note: The eternal significance of this forgiveness
in Matthew 6 is made plain in the parable of the unforgiving servant
in Matthew 18. Jesus is not merely talking about losing fellowship.
He is talking about losing God if we go on through life with an unforgiving
spirit.

Matthew 18:32-35, “Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You
wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me;
and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy
on you?’ And in anger his lord delivered him to the torturers,
until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will
do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your
heart.”

The Necessity Not to Live According to the Flesh

Romans 8:12-14, “So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the
flesh, you will die, but if
by the Spirit you put to death the
deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit
of God are sons of God.”

Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
anger, selfishness, dissension, haughty spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing,
and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who
do such things will not enter the Kingdom of God.”

Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Galatians 6:8, “For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh
reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit
reap eternal life.”

The Necessity of Being Free From the Love of Money

Luke 14:25-33, “Now great multitudes accompanied Him; and He turned
and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father
and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and
even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his
own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple . . . so therefore whoever
of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.’“

Luke 18:18-22, “And the ruler asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why
do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments:
“Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false
witness, honor your father and mother.’” And he said, ‘All these I have
observed from my youth.’ And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, ‘One
thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me.’“

The Necessity of Love to Christ and God

Matthew 10:37-39, “He who loves father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than
me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow
me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who
loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Matthew 24:12-13, “And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will
grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

John 8:42, “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you
would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God.’“

Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good for those who
love God and are called according to His purpose.”

1 Corinthians 2:9-10, “As it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor
ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those
who love Him,’ God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”

1 Corinthians 8:3, “But if one loves God, one is known by Him.”

1 Corinthians 16:22, “If anyone does not love the Lord let him
be accursed.”

2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, “The coming of the lawless one by the activity
of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders,
and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish because they refuse
to love the truth and so to be saved.”

2 Timothy 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and
not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has
stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised
to those who love him.”

James 2:5, “Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those
who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom
which He has promised to those who love Him?”

1 Peter 1:8, “Without having seen Him you love Him; though
you do not now see Him you believe in Him and rejoice with unutterable
and exalted joy.”

1 Peter 2:7, “To you, therefore, who believe, he is precious.

1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If
anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.”

The Necessity to Love Others

Matthew 25:40-46, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to
you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did
it to Me.’ Then He will say to those at His left hand, ‘Depart from
me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and
you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked
and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit
me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or
thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister
to you?’ Then He will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you
did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And
they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life.”

Luke 10:25-28, “And behold a lawyer stood up to put Him to the test,
saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’
He said to him, ‘What is written in the law, how do you read?’ And he
answered, ‘You shall love the Lord with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your
neighbor as yourself.’ And He said to him, ‘You have answered
right; do this, and you will live.’“

Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
is of any avail, but faith working through love.”

1 Peter 3:9, “Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling’;
but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that
you may obtain a blessing.”

1 John 3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life,
because we have loved the brethren. He who does not love remains in
death.”

1 John 4:8, 20, “He who does not love does not know God;
for God is love . . . . If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his
brother, he is a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has
seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

The Necessity to Love the Truth

2 Thessalonians 2:10, “[They] are to perish because they refused
to love the truth and so be saved.”

The Necessity of Being Childlike

Matthew 18:2-3, “And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst
of them, and said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become
like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’”

The Necessity to Bridle the Tongue

James 1:26, “If any one thinks he is religious and does not bridle
his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is vain.”

The Necessity of Perseverance

Mark 13:13, “You will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he
who endures to the end will be saved.”

Luke 9:62, “Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the
plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.’“

1 Corinthians 15:1-2, “Now I would remind you, brethren, in what
terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you
stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you
believed in vain.”

Colossians 1:21-23, “And you, who once were estranged and hostile
in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh
by His own death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable
before Him, provided that you continue in the faith, stable
and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel, which you heard,
which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which
I, Paul, became a minister.”

2 Timothy 2:11-12, “This saying is sure: If we have died with Him,
we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with
Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us.”

Hebrews 3:6, “Christ was faithful over God’s house as a Son. And
we are His house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our
hope.”

Hebrews 3:12-14, “Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you
an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living
God. Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that
none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we
have shared in Christ, if we hold our first confidence to the end.”

Hebrews 6:11-12, “We desire
each one of you to show the same earnestness
in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that
you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith
and patience inherit the promises.”

Hebrews 10:36, “For you have need of endurance, so that you may
do the will of God and receive what is promised.”

The Necessity of Walking in the Light

1 John 1:7, “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His
Son cleanses us from all sin.”

The Necessity of Repentance

Luke 3:3, John the Baptist “went into all the region about the Jordan,
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Mark 1:14-15, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee
preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and
the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’“

Luke 3:8, “Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not
begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell
you, God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham.”

Luke 5:32, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance.”

Luke 13:1-3, “There were some present at that very time who told
Him of Galileans whose blood Pilot had mingled with their sacrifices.
And he answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse
sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I
tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.’”

Luke 15:7, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven
over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons
who need no repentance.

Luke 24:46-47, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer
and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and
forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations,
beginning from Jerusalem.”

Acts 2:38, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Acts 3:19, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins
may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the
presence of the Lord.”

Acts 5:31, “God exalted Him at His right hand as Leader and Savior, to
give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

Acts 11:18, “When they heard this they were silenced. And they glorified
God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance
unto life.’“

Acts 20:21, “Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance
to God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Necessity of Warfare Vigilance

1 Timothy 6:12, “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of
eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession
in the presence of many witnesses.”

Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate
is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who
enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard
that leads to life and those who find it are few.”

Luke 13:24, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many,
I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

Hebrews 3:12-14, “Take care brethren lest there be in any of
you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the
living God. Exhort one another every day, as long as it is
called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness
of sin. For we share in Christ, if we hold our first confidence to the
end.”

Hebrews 12:14, “Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness
without which no one will see the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-27, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners
compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain
it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do
it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do
not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I pommel
my body, and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself
should be disqualified.”

2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished
the race, I have kept the faith.”

God’s Promise of Preservation in Holiness

Note: In Chapter Six of The Pleasures of God I
tried to show that part of the good news of God’s sovereign grace is
that “This truth enables us to own up to the demands for holiness in
the Scripture and yet have assurance of salvation.” The key to assurance
is not to reduce commands from requirements to options, but rather to
magnify grace as a power to obey as well as a pardon for sin. This essential
truth of grace as power as well as pardon is developed in Chapter Nine
in The Pleasures of God under the heading, “God’s pleasure
in obedience is good news because the obedience he loves is the obedience
of faith.” The following passages express the certainty of what God’s
gracious power will achieve for the child of God.

Mark 13:22, “False christs and false prophets will arise and show
signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect.”

Luke 22:31-32, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you
that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that
your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen
your brethren.”

John 10:27-30, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never
perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father,
who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to
snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Romans 8:30, “And those whom He predestined He also called; and those
whom He called He also justified; and those whom He justified He
also glorified.”

1 Corinthians 1:8-9, “He will sustain you to the end, guiltless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by Whom you were
called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Philippians 1:6, “I am sure that He who began a good work in
you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Philippians 2:13, “God is the one who is at work in you, both
to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you
holy; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful
and He will do it.”

2 Timothy 1:12, “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed,
and I am sure that He is able to guard until that Day what has been
entrusted to me.”

Hebrews 13:20-21, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from
the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood
of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may
do His will, working in you that which is pleasing in His sight through
Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

1 Peter 1:5, “Who by God’s power are guarded through faith for salvation
ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The Nature of Faith in the Gospel of John

John 3:19-21, “And this is the judgment, that the light has come
into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because
their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and
does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he
who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen
that his deeds have been wrought in God.”

Note: Coming to the Christ is one way John
describes faith (John 6:35). But no one comes to the light if they hate
the light (John 3:20). So before there can be the coming of faith there
must be the deeper transformation that brings us to love the light and
not hate it. This means that saving faith in John’s Gospel is the act
of a new heart and not merely the mental assent of an old one that does
not love the light. Love is implicit in John’s view of saving faith.
And this is why he says in 1 John that if we don’t love we don’t even
know God and have not passed from death to life (1 John 3:14; 4:8,20).

John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life;
He
who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath
of God rests upon him.”

John 4:14, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him
will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become
in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Note: Saving faith is spoken of here as a drinking
of water that satisfies the deepest longings of the soul. This satisfaction
is what gives faith its life-changing power. It replaces sin with “the
expulsive power of a new affection” (the title of an old sermon by Thomas
Chalmers).

John 6:35, “I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me shall
not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”

Note: This confirms that coming is a way of talking
about believing. It also confirms that John 4:14 was talking about faith.
It also shows that faith is a feeding and drinking from the presence
and promise of Jesus to the degree that we are not dominated by the
alluring pleasures of sin (Romans 6:14).

John 5:41-44, “I do not receive glory from men. But I know that you
have not the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name
and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you
will receive. How can you believe, who receive glory from one another
and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”

Note: Faith is impossible for a person who is in
love with the praise of men. So faith is of such a nature that it excludes
the bondage to applause. It includes a love for God that makes the praise
of men pale by comparison to what God is.

John 8:45-47, “But, because I tell you the Truth you do not believe Me.
Which of you convicts Me of sin? If I tell you the Truth, why do you
not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; the
reason why you do not hear them is because you are not of God.”

Note: You cannot even hear the word of God (in a
compliant way) if you are not “of God,” that is, not born anew by the
free-blowing Spirit (John 3:8; 1:12-13). Therefore faith is a fruit
of God’s work in the soul and comes from a heart regenerate and drawn
to Christ. This is what Jesus means in John 6:44 when he says, “No one
can come to me unless the Father draws him.” The drawing enables the
coming, which we have seen is faith. The drawing corresponds to being
“of God” in John 8:47 and being Jesus’ sheep in John 10:27.

John 10:25-28, “Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not
believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness
to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow Me.’“

Note: You do not become a sheep by believing. You
can believe only because you are a sheep. This is the way Jesus taught
the doctrine of election as John records it. The teaching is also found
in John 6:44,65; 8:47; 18:37; 3:8; etc. But the point for faith is that
it comes from a certain heart—a heart of a sheep of Jesus which is described
like this: My sheep hear my voice . . . and follow me. Faith therefore
must be of such a nature that it produces that following.

John 12:25, “He who loves his life loses it and he who hates
his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Note: Hating the life in this world means being
willing to suffer in obedience to Jesus command of love, just like he
suffered for the sake of love. This shows that eternal life cannot be
inherited by a faith that is fruitless and leaves the heart loveless
and selfish.

John 15:2, “Every branch of mine which bears no fruit, He takes
away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it
might bear more fruit.”

Note: Fruitless faith is not saving faith and results
in being cut off from Jesus (like Judas). As verse 6 says, “He is cast
forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered and thrown
into the fire and burned.” (Ponder John 13:8-10.)